Kingfisher grounds 50 trainee co-pilots

Amol Maokar & Mithun Roy, ET BureauOct 19, 2008, 02.40am IST

MUMBAI: The crisis in the Indian aviation sector is getting worse. Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines has benched 50 trainee co-pilots, asking them to stay at home till further orders. The company has offered them a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 against their take home salary of up to Rs 1 lakh.

Kingfisher has conveyed the decision after it announced an operational tie-up with Jet Airways to battle rising costs on Tuesday. Both airlines had decided to rationalise routes and cut capacities in both domestic and international routes. Within a day, Jet tried to sack 1,900 employees but had to take them back following a nation-wide protest. The loss-making airline told these pilots that they would be asked to report for work once the market stabilises which could be take as many as 12 months. This decision has put the co-pilots in a fix as most of them had borrowed funds from banks to pay for the commercial pilot licence course fees and were planning to repay the loan from their salaries.

The deal, though appears relatively lucrative when compared to the Air-India's scheme which offers a three-year sabbatical without salary. But it has left a bitter taste for the employees who are at the receiving end. Frustrated with the decision, the co-pilots have sought a meeting with the Kingfisher authorities on Tuesday to explain their case, said one of the co-pilots. They are also weighing options of complaining against the company with the authorities, he said.

When contacted, the Kingfisher spokesperson denied the move. Hitesh Patel, executive vice-president of Kingfisher Airline, said the entire batch of the co-pilots had been asked to take a salary cut. The Kingfisher spokesperson said in a statement: "Kingfisher has effected a downward revision in the emoluments of a small pool of 50 trainee co-pilots."